Preface: I never do any sort of bastard modding. What you see is 100% what you get, no false or misleading information is ever presented in-game to players by myself as moderator.

Overview

Witchhunt is a game in which two groups seek to control their town by killing the other: The Villagers and the Witches. There are fewer members of the Witch team, but their identities are secret. Whichever team successfully kills all of their opponents wins.

The game continuously marches through a daily cycle. The length of each "game day" cycle can vary; a real life game "day" might take 20 minutes, while a forum game "day" might take a week. Each phase has an announced deadline, at which point the game automatically transitions to the next phase.

The first half of the cycle is Day. During the Day players may make open discussion in the public forum thread, and decide on a target to lynch. Any living player may vote for any other living player, and a true majority (more than half) is required to lynch. When a majority is reached, the person is automatically lynched. (If the deadline arrives, no one is lynched.) During this discussion, it may prove important to conceal information or lie. There is no restriction to what players can say or claim, though civil dialogue according to the context (such as obeying forum rules) is expected.

During Night, players may not use the public discussion. The Witch Coven, whom are given a private means of communication, collectively selects a target to kill each Night. (Also by pure majority) Various individual events affecting specific players happen at night as well. (more on that in a moment)

The results of the Witches' foul deed will be announced at the start of the next Day, as the cycle continues. Players can use this new information to discuss who the Witches might be and vote for suspects.

In addition to a typical deadline, both Day and Night have a minimum deadline; the game will not transition to the next phase before this time, which prevents overly hasty shenanigans.

Note that unlike some other games, there is no "card flip" (announcement of the player's identity) on death!

Guardian Angels

When players die, they are NOT eliminated from the game. Instead they continue to serve their original team as a Guardian Angel. Each Night, the Guardian Angels may vote to protect a target; the protected player cannot die that night for any reason, including if targeted by the Witch Coven.

Angels vote by simple plurality, so dead players who do not wish to continue participating can do so with minimal consequence. Angels see all events that take place in the game (except Coven voting) and may discuss the game freely with each other; using this information, they can make a big difference, but there is a key limitation to their power...

Angels may only collectively protect any individual player once per game. This means that dead Witch players can still assist their side, by working to "waste" precious Angel protections on key players.

If there is a tie among the Angel vote, all targets are protected. This powerful option risks exhausting the Angels' power, and allows dead Witches to more easily waste protections. Angels must protect: If zero Angels vote at Night such that no one is protected, all current Angels lose their right to vote in the future.

Note that if a person is targeted with a kill at Night and survives, the town is still informed that they were targeted! This is very valuable information!

Player Assignments (Roles and Team)

Each player is given two assignments: a unique role, and a designated team.

Unique roles provide every player with a special, unique ability of some sort. These abilities may be offensive or defensive, mechanical or informational. Powers granted by your role only apply while you are alive.

Roles however, are seperate from team assignments. Most roles can be given to either a Villager or a Witch. While there are only these two teams, there are a few special team assignments that put players in a special place on their team.

For example, a select few Villagers are designated as Holy Villagers. Certain especially powerful roles are marked Holy, and these will always be given to the Holy Villagers. (This ensures that Witches never get their hands on the most potent abilities.) These Holy Villagers are commonly the highest priority Witch targets, thanks to their strong powers.

Another special type of Villager is the pair of Village Lovers. These two Villagers get random roles like everyone else, but suffer a particular curse: If one dies, the other is killed as well. However, there is an upside: One of those Holy Roles is Cupid, who provides both Lovers with immunity at Night as long as he lives. Because Lovers can privately communicate and take advantage of both their unique Roles, they are potentially a big thorn in the Witches' side.

Junior Witches and Village Spies

Two other special team assignments are used to smoothly scale the game for larger sized groups.

Junior Witches are "sleeper-cells": they are not in the normal Coven that votes to kill each Night, nor do they appear to be if anyone "checks" them with a role power. Junior Witches permanently join the Coven the first night after the Coven fails to select a target for the first time. This may simply because all the original Witches are dead, or perhaps some remain and the invitation was intentional. However, there is a catch...

There are also Village Spies, who can sneak into the Coven but are actually on the Villager team! They will join automatically the same Night the Junior Witches do, but a few seconds sooner--the Junior Witches will not be able to be sure if the players they find waiting for them are real Witches, or Spies! Naturally if there really is a Spy who snuck in, the Witches urgently need to kill him that Night before he can expose them all! Inviting the Junior Witches into the Coven without being sure the Spies are dead is truly opening Pandora's Box!

-The Junior Witches know each other at the start of the game, but nothing else.
-The Village Spies know each other at the start of the game, but nothing else.
-The (Old) Witches know who the Juniors/Spies are, but only as a whole--they don't know which is which!

The Witches can watch these players carefully, and try to figure who is a Junior Witch, and who is a Spy. Dare these two Witch groups try to communicate under the town's nose? The time will likely come where the elder Witches pass the torch on to their Junior sisters; will they be able to track down the Village Spies before then?

The King's Court

Very large mafia-style games can be chaotic and random at the start, and drag on for a very long time. To help combat this, very large (>25 players) games of Witchunt have a special feature known as the "King's Court."

There is a Holy (always Villager) role named the King; the first Night, the King must select four other players to join his Court. The Court then behaves just like a second Coven: voting by majority each Night to kill a target, who will be discovered the following Dawn. (Anything that protects a player during the Night, such as Guardian Angels, applies equally to the King's Court.)

The first Day players may want to "campaign" and argue why they would (or wouldn't) be a wise choice for the anonymous King to select. Dare the Witches try to sneak onto the court and manipulate it?

Additional roles beyond the King may start on the Court automatically, or possibly join it. Unlike the King, these role are not "Holy and thus may be Witches...

Should the King's Court ever fall below three members, it is disbanded the next Night they would meet and cannot be reformed. (This event is announced publicly.)

Role List
Shoutout to the art team!

F.A.Q. List:

Is this ruleset designed for real life or online play?

Both. Without compromise, the mechanics and balance of this ruleset is designed to support both types of games instantly. Of course, they are very different games in practice--online Witches enjoy robust private communicate but suffer from a decisive, permanent record--but the stability of the mechanics is intentionally suited for both.

Do the Witches start the game knowing each other?

Yes. In addition to having immediate access to private discussion in online games, Witches are always given explicit notification of the start of the game. This would include everyone in the Coven identifying each other, and getting to see who all of the Junior Witches and Village Spies are. (Collectively; the Witches are not sure who is which.)

What about Junior Witches? Or Spies?

Junior Witches are given notification of each other and share a private discussion (prior to joining), but don't know anything about the older Witches watching over them. Same goes for the Spies, who also have a private discussion of their own. (prior to joining)

Can a Village Lover be a Witch? Or Both? What about Holy, or Spies? If there's a Village and Witch Lover...

No, stop right there. Villager Lover is a special team assignment, just like all those things listed. Everyone only gets one team assignment!

What exactly does "target" mean?

A target refers to any living player, of the person in question's choice. (Including him or herself.)

What exactly does "extra life" mean?

Having an extra life means that you will always survive the next thing that would otherwise kill you, at the expense of the extra life. You can have multiple extra lives, though this is highly unusual. Online, you are informed of how many extra lives you currently have.

Can I explicitly vote to lynch no one?

Yes, as town, Court, or Coven. Half of the group voting this way is considered a majority.

What happens if a Priest/Bishop checks a Junior Witch or Spy?

The Priest and Bishop check if someone is "in the Coven"; are they currently in the Coven? That's all there is to it, no exceptions. (Easy!)

What roles are Holy?

The ones with the gold cards: Priest, Acolyte, Bishop, Nun, Cupid, and King.

Do I have to use my role power?

Almost all abilities are optional; most rules text includes "may". Roles that announce themselves when they use their power can abstain to take their secret to the grave, if they wish.

Does the Henchman get private communication (online) with the Inquisitor and Oracle?

Yes, and seperately!

The Bishop/Hunter/Thief say they trigger when half the town is dead; how is that rounded?

It says "at least"; it rounds up. (i.e. triggers only when 8 of 15 players are dead)

Can you explain the exact order these defensive options would go in?

First would be the Pauper's "join the King's Court" ability, as the role states. Then any "unlimited" protection--be it from Angels, Cupid, or the Gambler/Recluse abilities--will absorb a kill before it consumes an extra life. The Martyr jumping in is the final defense, only possible if there is no protection or extra lives.

What if the Martyr saves someone at Night, but is protected by the angels?

The Martyr indeed lives. As a bonus, their protection effect still applies to the person they saved!

What if the Martyr is protected by Cupid, does that work? Can they save people without dying?

Cupid's role is carefully worded to prevent this; a Martyr Lover still dies while saving people. They should consider saving their other half!

Can we get a list of private information text presented to the players, such as what they would normally receive in a PM?

Relevant parts of the source code that generates text from both the server and client sides will be made available in the future. (I am temporarily abstaining since so much of this information is subject to significant change at the moment; I would ask that testers please cooperate and not attempt to leverage such perspective until this info is available--this has not been a problem yet at all, so thanks!)

__________________She shuddered, even as we were descending, but when we dismounted, there was no sadness, no grief. Her ice blue eyes burned in boundless fury, a look so piercing it went clean through me. It was simultaneously the most beautiful and most terrifying thing I had ever seen on her face.